c25k | Blue Runnings

Couch to 5k: Picking Back Up After Break #2

by Sarah J.

I have been off work since about the start of November 2023 with long COVID/post-viral fatigue. There are two elements to this for me: physical fatigue, and mental/social fatigue. The enforced rest period has allowed me to make improvements in the physical element and begin to slowly, slowly improve my fitness again and start to feel like I’m regaining my personal identity.

I started with very short and slow walks (10 mins) on flat areas only around my house, and when feeling better began looking at doing a couch to 5k program. I’ve had no luck with these previously as I usually stuck it out until about week two if lucky and then got distracted by something else.

One of the things I’ve found helps with the long COVID and my mental well-being while off work (it’s not actually fun being in the house unable to do much for weeks or months on end, great though it sounds when you’re healthy!) is having a routine of small things. I get up at 6am to see my husband Peter off to work, and go back to bed with the cat until about 8am. For the first few months I needed to sleep for this period, but later I’ve found reading to be enough: it makes me feel like I’ve had a rest and risen when I want to rather than need to for other obligations and sets me up well for the day.

I determine in the morning what I want or need to achieve that day, limiting this to ideally 1-2 things with anything else being an optional bonus, and usually do them in the morning as this is when I feel most active. Naps frequently featured in my afternoons for quite a while until my fatigue improved enough to no longer need them.

I don’t like taking lots of equipment out with me when I’m exercising, so the prospect of a couch to 5k program I could have on my watch and not being required to take my phone with me was appealing. It turns out Garmin have at least three options for beginner to 5k programs on their Connect site, and one of them was by Jeff Galloway and features quite a lot of walking: perfect for someone who’s just about starting to walk at a normal human speed!

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That’s Life!

by Sarah J.

I haven’t posted anything since 2020 (until yesterday’s updated Races Under a Tenner 2024) – what gives? Did I suddenly fall out of love with running?

No. I was still running in 2020, but working on site through COVID lockdown and an assortment of other perfect storm scenarios meant I had time off work for stress in the summer of 2021, left my job with burnout after more than ten years in December of that year, and moved to a new type of work, a new industry and all that goes with that.

In 2022 I had COVID twice, and the second time I was soon after diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency and post-viral fatigue – essentially, Long COVID (Post-COVID if you’re medical but I shall continue with the colloquialism from here!). I spent 18 months trying to manage my work to allow me to rest – working from home a lot, having short naps on the sofa with the cat as needed, and limiting my activity when I felt tired (which was a lot).

The work juggling wasn’t working for sustaining improvements, and in many ways my fatigue became more sensitive because I was losing fitness too. It felt like a perpetuating cycle where all my energy went into work as that’s what I felt a personal responsibility to attend to, and I compromised my own needs on a daily basis. The rest I was getting was enough only to allow me to work again.

I’d known a few people who’d had Long COVID more in the midst of the pandemic. They’d had a few months off work, completed gentle phased returns and duty modifications as needed and were, to an external perspective at least, back to enjoying their lives. I have now been off work since November 2023 in the hopes of the same outcome.

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